Oct. 3, 2018 – 129 Members of the House of Representatives have joined with 97 Civil Society organizations calling on the Department of State to include Reproductive Rights in the Annual Human Rights Reports. Since 2011, the congressionally-mandated Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued annually by the State Department, have addressed the status of […]
Center for Reproductive Rights
Nancy Northup: Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy is fundamentally hostile to the protection of reproductive rights under the U.S. Constitution
Aug. 30, 2018 – Statement from Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, opposing the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court: For the first time since our founding in 1992, the Center for Reproductive Rights is opposing the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee. Based on our […]
Outcome of Irish Referendum on Abortion is a Momentous Result for Reproductive Rights
GENEVA, May 26, 2018 – The Center for Reproductive Rights celebrates today’s referendum result in favour of repeal of the Irish constitutional prohibition on abortion as a deeply historic moment for women’s reproductive health and rights in Ireland and globally. The Irish people voted by a resounding majority to remove the constitutional prohibition and enable […]
Center for Reproductive Rights Condemns State Department for Dropping Reproductive Rights from Human Rights Reports
April 24, 2018 – The Center for Reproductive Rights called on the State Department to issue complete reports after stripping reporting on women’s reproductive health and rights from its annual country reports on global human rights. The State Department’s annual human rights reports document the human rights situation in countries around the world on a […]
Salvadoran Court Releases Woman Wrongfully Imprisoned for 15 Years After Stillbirth
March 13, 2018 – Following almost 15 years of wrongful imprisonment after suffering a stillbirth, the Salvadoran President, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, through the Ministry of Justice commuted the sentence of Maira Veronica Figueroa Marroquin and released her today. In their decision, the court considered the sentence to be excessive and immoral. The Center for Reproductive […]
State Department to Strip Mention of Reproductive Health and Rights in Human Rights Report
Feb. 23, 2018 – In the latest move of a long string of attacks by the Trump administration on women’s health and rights, the State Department has been directed to censor mentions of women’s reproductive rights and discrimination in its annual report on human rights, according to Politico. The Trump administration’s reported directive calls for […]
Senate Rejects Unconstitutional Nationwide Abortion Ban at 20 Weeks
Jan. 29, 2018 – Today, the Senate rejected an unconstitutional federal ban on abortions at 20 weeks. Failing the 60 vote threshold, the 51-46 procedural vote blocked a ban that contained only the narrowest exceptions for survivors of rape or incest while prohibiting doctors from providing care at the risk of federal criminal penalties, including up […]
Trump Administration Pledges to Support Anti-Woman Policies
Jan. 19, 2018 – Days before the 45th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade, the Trump Administration doubled down on efforts to target the health and the rights of women, LGBTQ individuals, and other marginalized communities. Shortly before President Trump made an unprecedented satellite address at an annual anti-abortion rally, the Department of Health […]
El Salvador: Woman Wrongfully Imprisoned after Obstetric Emergency is Denied Freedom
Dec. 13, 2017 – The San Salvador Second Tribunal of Sentence (Tribunal Segundo de Sentencia de San Salvador) has denied freedom to Teodora del Carmen Vásquez (37 years old), a pregnant woman who suffered a stillbirth and was wrongfully sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide. The Second Tribunal upheld her wrongful conviction. […]
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Calls for Better Access to Reproductive Health Services
Oct. 25, 2017 – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)—the principal human rights body for the Americas—released a statement that underscores how laws criminalizing abortion in all circumstances lead to human rights violations. The IACHR statement touches on how restrictive abortion laws have a negative impact on women’s dignity, their rights to health, life, personal integrity, […]
Trump Administration Guts Women’s Access to Birth Control
Oct. 6, 2017 – The Trump administration today issued interim final rules which could restrict access to birth control for hundreds of thousands of women. The rules—which were issued by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury—create a broad exemption that enables employers, health insurance providers, and universities claiming a religious […]
U.S. House of Representatives Passes Unconstitutional Nationwide Ban on Abortion at 20 Weeks
Oct. 3, 2017 – Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 36, an unconstitutional nationwide ban on abortion at 20 weeks, prohibiting safe and legal abortion without regard for the health of the woman. This ban not only violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent established in Roe v. Wade, and reaffirmed just last year in Whole Woman’s […]
States with Most Abortion Restrictions have the Fewest Supportive Policies for Women, Children
Aug. 1, 2017 – States with the highest number of abortion restrictions tend to have the worst women and children’s health outcomes and fewest supportive policies that would actually advance the health and well-being of families—according to an updated report released by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health today. The report—titled Evaluating […]
U.N. Committee: Criminalization of Abortion in Ireland Violates Woman’s Human Rights
June 13, 2017 – The United Nations Human Rights Committee has just ruled for the second time that Ireland’s abortion laws subjected a woman to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This new decision recognizes yet again that prohibiting abortion violates women’s human rights and calls on Ireland to reform its laws. The U.N. Committee ruled […]
House Passes Dangerous Bill to Repeal the Affordable Care Act and Gut Women’s Health Care
May 4, 2017 – By a narrow margin of 217-213, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the so-called American Health Care Act, a measure which dismantles the Affordable Care Act and pushes health care out of reach for millions of people. The measure—which has been widely denounced by leading health care organizations and experts– […]
IACHR Opens Case on Salvadoran Woman Wrongfully Imprisoned for Obstetric Emergency
April 19, 2017 – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)—a principal human rights body for the Americas—announced it will hear the case of Manuela, a Salvadoran woman wrongfully imprisoned after having an obstetric emergency who later died from untreated Hodgkins lymphoma in prison. In its report, the IACHR states that it is admitting Manuela’s […]
Center for Reproductive Rights: Senate breaks with 200 year-precedent to change the rules mid-course of a confirmation hearing
April 6, 2017 – Today, the U.S. Senate took the unprecedented step to change the rules on the nomination of President Donald Trump’s nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The Senate invoked the so-called “Nuclear Option,” requiring only a simple majority to advance the nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the high court. Under regular […]
Trump Administration Guts Funding to UN Population Fund
April 4, 2017 – This week the U.S. State Department announced its decision to eliminate vital support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the largest multilateral provider of family planning and reproductive health services working in over 150 countries. In a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, the State Department said […]
Congresswomen Reintroduce Bill to Ensure Coverage of Abortion Services for All Women
Jan. 31, 2017 – Congresswomen Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today reintroduced the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act, alongside Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chairs Congresswomen Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and 100 other Members of Congress. The EACH Woman Act is a piece of legislation which would […]
Report: Women in 33 States At-Risk of Losing Right to Abortion if Landmark Roe v. Wade Decision Overturned
Jan. 23, 2017 – Over 37 million women in 33 states are at-risk of living in a state where abortion could become illegal if the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v Wade were overturned—according to an updated report issued today by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The report—What if Roe Fell?—provides a powerful state-by-state […]